Sunday, December 20, 2009

Snap and Search: Using images to constuct links between the material and virtual

"Our goal is for Goggles to recognize every image. This is really the beginning" - Vic Gundotra, Google vice president in charge of mobile phones.

Yesterday the NYT reported that Google has recently unveiled a new app called Goggles. The software allows anyone to upload a photo from a mobile and then be returned detailed information about the subject of the photo.

Many similar ideas to connect the material and virtual realms already exist. However, most of those technological practices rely on more complicated infrastructures (e.g. QR codes, compasses, GPS etc.). Here, all that is needed is a camera-phone and an internet connection.

The release of Goggles therefore lends a lot of support to Tim O'Reilly's argument that networked peer-produced information will increasingly be used as a way of "brute-forcing identity out of reality."

The app can also be used to locate more than just famous landmarks. It can also be employed to take photos of commodities (and any other material objects) in order to link them to virtual information. A practice that could potentially lead to a fundamentally altered politics of consumption.

2 comments:

I commend you for the paragraph quoting Tim O'Reilly. This is the most succinct and effective expression of consumer privacy concerns due to social media a la Facebook I have seen to date. You said: start quote "The release of Goggles therefore lends a lot of support to Tim O'Reilly's argument that networked peer-produced information will increasingly be used as a way of "brute-forcing identity out of reality." end quote

May I have permission to quote you in my blog, the next time I write an update on Facebook etc impact on the individual's right to privacy? I'd give you attribution, and Tim OReilly. I'm on blogger and wordpress, as Ellie Asks Why. Also am a Floatingsheep.org subscriber.

Last thought: I too wish that apps such as Goggles would result in an altered politics of consumption. I read your post on that too.